When will flood victims receive financial assistance?
Unfortunately, there's no telling.
Wapello County residents applied for money from the Financial Emergency Mangement Agency (FEMA) to aid in the damages caused by recent flooding, but FEMA has still not accepted those requests.
FEMA offers both public and individual assistance. The public assistance request, which helps municipalities and governments, has already been awarded for Wappelo County. Emergency Management Director Josh Stevens says FEMA will soon take the first step in the process and meet with city and county officials.
However, individual residents are still left hanging.
"Sometimes the process is just slow," said Wapello County Emergency Management Director Josh Stevens. "I've been turning in the documentation. Wapello County was actually declared, from the public assistance side, a month before Mahaska County. It's just kind-of how the process rolls and the documentation goes. There's no real reason. We haven't been denied, we just haven't been accepted yet."
When the applications are accepted, Stevens explains the process.
"Once the president signs the declaration, that allows assistance to be given to each individual on a case-by-case basis. That's when FEMA actually comes out and meets with each individual or speaks with them, then they get those dollar amounts and figure out which direction they want to take."
Stevens has received about 60 Wapello County residents' applications for the money, but he expects that number to be on the rise, especially with the recent weather.
"A lot of those folks have been [filling in their applications with], 'I've had two or three feet of water in my basement,' or 'It destroyed my hot water heater.' But, I think there's a lot more out there. Now that we're directing folks to the FEMA website or the 1-800 number, those numbers don't go to me, they go directly to FEMA, so I imagine that number will be significantly higher than what I've seen."
Residents who have not applied for aid are urged to do so at www.fema.gov, or by calling 1-800-621-FEMA.
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